"I'd sooner talk business with you present, Mrs Matheson. I think a wife has every right to be her husband's business partner. I think it's good for both sides. When my dear wife was with me, we were share-and-share partners." He paused for a moment, then continued: "Here's the draft scheme for the flotation."
He held out a paper between Sir Francis and Olive, and Sir Francis took it and read it over with an air of concentrated, conscious wisdom—the air he carefully donned at Board meetings, together with a pair of gold-rimmed pince-nez.
"Clifford will be Chairman," explained Larssen. "You and Lord St Aubyn and Carleton-Wingate are the men I want for the other Directors. I, as vendor, join the Board after allotment."
"Where's the point about shares for me?" asked Sir Francis, reading on.
"That doesn't appear in the prospectus, of course. A private arrangement between Clifford and myself. Here's the memorandum."
This he handed to Olive, who nodded her head with pleasure as she read it through, her father looking over her shoulder.
"Keep it," said Larssen as she made to hand it back. "Keep it till your husband returns from Canada."
"When did he say he will be back?"
"It's very uncertain. He doesn't know himself. It's a delicate matter to handle—very delicate. That's why he went himself to Montreal."
"He wired me that he's travelling under an assumed name."